When the comedian Maz Jobrani was asked to deliver the 2017 commencement address at U.C. Berkeley, he immediately said yes.
Later, it sank in — this is a big deal. Past speakers have included scholars, innovators and statesmen.
“And then it becomes daunting,” he said, “because you go, ‘Oh my God I’ve got to write something and it’s going to go on the internet and the whole world’s going to see it.”
Mr. Jobrani himself graduated from Berkeley in 1993, then started a doctoral program in political science at U.C.L.A. before walking away for comedy.
In a news release, a student leader suggested the appearance by Mr. Jobrani, who fled Iran as a child with his family in 1978, would resonate in a time of discord over immigration and Islam.
We caught up with Mr. Jobrani by phone in Los Angeles, where he lives. Some excerpts:
Q. Have you been thinking about what you’ll say?
A. Oh my God, Mike, I’m losing sleep over it. I’m serious. I wake up at, like, 5 in the morning with ideas and I jot them on my iPhone.
One of the challenges for me is, being a comedian, they expect me to be funny too. If you watch one of my favorite [commencement addresses] with Conan O’Brien at Dartmouth — so brilliantly written and so funny for 15 minutes or so. He’s just killing it. And then he goes into his story of being ousted by Jay Leno and so then it becomes poignant. And I’m just watching and I’m going, ‘Oh, my God. How did he do that?’
Q. You’ve become more political on stage. What worries you right now?
A. Trump doesn’t go a day without worrying me. It seems like everyday there’s something new. And then as a comedian I’ve been also saying, ‘It’s hard to keep up with the guy,’ because he just does something outrageous every day.
Q. Tell me about your experience at Berkeley.
A. It was four of the best years of my life. I really loved it. I remember being taught to think critically at Berkeley.
But there was also interesting stuff. We had a guy back then called the Naked Guy, who was just this guy who was a nudist who was a student who would go to class with like a little sheet around his midsection and that was it. You used to see him walking around and sometimes he’d just have it hanging out, and it was like, ‘Well, this is Berkeley.’
Q. If you could go back and talk to Maz in 1993, what advice would you give?
A. Follow your heart. Do what you love. Because I was constantly struggling with that. If it’s in your heart go for it. Don’t listen to other people.
Q. Any smaller advice?
A. Be kind. It feels good.